If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. ** If you are logged in, most ads will not be displayed. **

How do I move window buttons to left hand side?

I have just switched recently from Ubuntu 12.04 to LinuxMint 14. I would like to switch the close, minimize and resize buttons to the left hand side as I found that that works best for me. I have searched for an answer but haven't been able to find one yet.

Does anyone have the answer for me? I am comfortable with using the command line to accomplish tasks.

Thanks for the reply. I had forgotten to mention that I clicked on new themes in the Appearance window. All the buttons there are on the right hand side. I would like to know where the config file is that I could edit to move the buttons if one exists. If there is not any way to make the change I would like to know that as well. I will search for more gnome themes to see if I can find one.

On my Mate desktop, the menu buttons are on the left side of the bar. If you mean you want the panel on the left side of the screen, right click on the panel and choose properties to move the panel to the left side of the screen.

Thanks for the tip. I installed gconf-editor as you recommended. However, there was no Metacity anywhere in the folder tree. I also tried this on my netbook which is also running Mint 14 with the same results. Since I use keyboard shortcuts whenever I can it is not a major issue for me.

Sorry Jim
I don't use mint; i'm on Ubuntu. I thought it might be similar. In Ubuntu we have ubuntu-tweak and in > tweaks > window > window control buttons rposition it can be changed to left or right.
if you have the gnome desktop this commamnd will change it:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout "close,minimize,maximize:menu"
this is found in DConfiguration Editor (dconf-gsettings-backend) under:
org > gnome > desktop > wm > preferences
(if you don't need the window menu you can ommit that.)
Otherwise it depends what desktop and window manager your system uses. Perhaps you can find your window managers settings in gconf-editor or dconf-editor?

I installed dconf-editor, after opening it I navigated to button layout in preferences. The default setting is: :minimize,maximize,close, I
changed it to: close,minimize,maximize:. I tried logging out and back in and then rebooting. Each time the button layout reverted back to the
default setting.